Terms of the deal, which is set to close by Dec. 31, were not disclosed. A UPS spokesperson said the deal is not considered “material.”

UPS Logistics Technologies was founded in 1983 as Roadnet Systems Corp. and was acquired by UPS in 1986. After the sale to Thoma Bravo is completed, the company will be called Roadnet Technologies Inc.

The Baltimore company’s software is used to manage more than 171,000 vehicles a day for clients such as Frito-Lay Corp. and Bob’s Discount Furniture.

“We’ve spent a couple of years looking for a platform in the transportation area,” said Scott Crabill, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. “We reached out [to UPS] directly, and fortuitously they were thinking about divesting that business because it wasn’t core to what UPS did.”

The investment will be from the $825 million Thoma Bravo Fund IX LP, which closed in March 2009.

“Only about a third of the vehicles out there are using routing and scheduling software, the rest of them are using paper, homegrown systems, or just simple systems,” Crabill said. “The sector is growing at a double-digit rate, which in the software world is at the higher end of the spectrum.”

Thoma Bravo typically invests $20 million to $100 million in equity in companies that have earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization of at least $10 million.